The Sixth Sense was Overlooked
Haley Jole Osment and Bruce Willis star in The Sixth Sense (Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures, 1999).
Where was the award season love for The Sixth Sense?
I feel like I don’t need to tell anyone there are spoilers ahead since The Sixth Sense was released in 1999 and it seems like everyone and their mother has seen it, but for those who never saw it, SPOILERS AHEAD!
The Sixth Sense explores the idea of a tormented child, Cole, who can see and talk to spirits. The problem is that the only spirits that visit Cole are ones that died brutally, which, of course, freaks him the fuck out. He doesn’t tell his mom about what’s going on, and she chalks up his behavior as being a deeply troubled kid. That’s when Dr. Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist, steps in to try and help the little dude, but he’s not the prolific doc he used to be. More spirits torment Cole, Malcolm’s home life is falling apart, Cole finally trusts Malcolm with his secret, but… GASP… a twist ending! Malcolm is a ghost! He was shot and killed by a former patient of his, and it seems like Cole was the one helping Malcolm all along to understand he’s straight up dead and needs to move on.
Malcolm was played by Bruce Willis. Up until this point, many of the movies that he had starred in were action oriented films. Taking on the role of a soft spoken, subdued, and empathetic fatherly figure showed Willis in a new light. Sadly, Willis was barely recognized by various nomination committees when it was time for the awards to start rolling in. Maybe they just couldn’t wrap their heads around this serious role, or maybe they didn’t think he was as good as his competitors that year. I’ll say this though, his portrayal as Malcolm was impressive because it showed that Willis could earn big at the box office without giant explosions and catchy one liners.
Up until this point, Haley Jole Osment was only known as the little tike that played Forrest Gump’s son. Osment was only about 10 years old when the movie was released. His acting was superb in this role because he had to convey so many different emotions depending on the scene. He was both serious and, at times, silly, filled with terror and brave, mature but in need of comfort. Osment received several nominations during awards season for this role, but didn’t win any big ones.
In preparation for this article, I recently rewatched The Sixth Sense to see if it still holds up. Overall, yes, it does. M. Night Shyamalan, the writer and director of the film, masterfully crafted this movie so that it can still captivate audiences years after its release. One of Shyamalan’s gifts is being able to bring the audience in and then surprising them with a big reveal, a truly timeless move. His directing and writing won him several award nominations and a handful of wins, which he deserved. Not too bad for a then relatively new kid on the block.
For those of us that have seen The Sixth Sense, it might be a movie that you come back to every now and again. I mean, it has a 90% audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so people must like it. It kind of bums me out that the movie didn’t earn as many prestigious awards as it could have during its pop culture moment because it’s such a good film!